Isa 1:10-16 | KingComments | STEP | Isaiah represents the voice of the remnant when he acknowledges in that it is thanks to God’s grace that they did not become like Sodom and Gomorrah. This does not apply to the wicked mass to whom he addresses the word in . Spiritually speaking, the condition of Jerusalem and Judah resembles that of Sodom and Gomorrah ( ). Jerusalem and Judah exhibit characteristics such as pride, exuberance and worry-free rest. In the future, this will be spiritually the case with the Jews in their temple who they have rebuilt in unbelief in Jerusalem ( ). Isaiah addresses the leaders of Jerusalem in the first place ( ). He speaks to them unflatteringly as “rulers of Sodom”. He also addresses God’s people, whom he calls just as unflatteringly “you people of Gomorrah”. This means that their spiritual state will irrevocably lead to God’s judgment. Therefore, he calls upon the leaders to “hear the word of the LORD” and exhorts the people to “give ear to the instruction of our God”. On top of that, and this is really shocking, they cover their depravity with a garment of religiosity. It is the religion of Cain. They multiply “sacrifices” to God ( ), but He rejects them. They are worthless to Him because they are brought with a hypocritical and cold heart ( ; ; ; ). They may bring many sacrifices, but He abhors them. He has had enough of their “burnt offerings of rams”. The ram is the animal of the sacrifice of consecration. By bringing a ram, they pretend that they want to consecrate their lives to Him. The “fat” and “blood” of all kinds of animals don’t please Him. They pretend to acknowledge His right to it, but in practice they do what they like. What a variety of sacrifices they bring and they do it exactly as it is prescribed. But He cannot be happy about it. They come to appear before Him with straight faces and trample His courts ( ). Look how religious they are! But who asked that of them? He certainly did not. It is better for them to stay at home than to come hypocritically, because if they do, the offerings they bring are “worthless” ( ). They do not benefit at all, they have no effect at all. The “incense” they bring is “an abomination” to Him. The LORD rejects with disgust their whole service. Everything with which they think they are honoring Him with is nothing but spiritual selfishness. It serves only to satisfy their religious feelings. There is nothing for the LORD. The feast days and the associated meetings are also an abomination to Him. “I cannot endure” them, He must say, for He is the God of justice, and what they do is “iniquity”. Even if they hold a “solemn assembly” – these are the holy assemblies during the seven annual feast days described in Leviticus 23 – it is a reprehensible occupation to Him. They are feast days for self-indulgence, while there is no place for the LORD. They are therefore no longer “the LORD’s appointed times” ( ), but their own feasts. He therefore also calls them “ your new moon [festivals], your appointed feasts” ( ; cf. ). He hates them with all His soul. They are a burden to Him and He is weary of bearing them (cf. ). We would say: He is sick of it. The language is extremely powerful and penetrating. God expresses in an almost emotional way His condemnation of their reprehensible service. He wants to convince His people of the abhorrence He has for their coming to appear before Him. Without knowing it, many are blind to what is appropriate for the LORD (cf. ) and have defended themselves against these accusations. They are o so satisfied with themselves and their service. He who approaches God hypocritically in prayer He does not see or hear ( ). He listens only if the practice – of which the hands speak – is pure (cf. ; ). They stand in the temple praying with hands spread out, but God does not listen to them, for their hands are covered with blood. They commit injustice in secret and so they come before Him. Nice praying in public, while the practice is in conflict with that, He abhors it. He says of their drawing near to Him that they draw near to Him with their mouths and honor Him with their lips, but that they remove their hearts far from Him ( ). God abhors a purely outward religion, then, now and in the future. The Christian’s conscience can also be so seared that he can have the appearance of a Christian practice ( ) while living in his sins.

‏ Isaiah 1:10-16

Hypocritical Sacrifices

Isaiah represents the voice of the remnant when he acknowledges in Isa 1:9 that it is thanks to God’s grace that they did not become like Sodom and Gomorrah. This does not apply to the wicked mass to whom he addresses the word in Isa 1:10-20. Spiritually speaking, the condition of Jerusalem and Judah resembles that of Sodom and Gomorrah (Eze 16:49). Jerusalem and Judah exhibit characteristics such as pride, exuberance and worry-free rest. In the future, this will be spiritually the case with the Jews in their temple who they have rebuilt in unbelief in Jerusalem (Rev 11:8).

Isaiah addresses the leaders of Jerusalem in the first place (Isa 1:10). He speaks to them unflatteringly as “rulers of Sodom”. He also addresses God’s people, whom he calls just as unflatteringly “you people of Gomorrah”. This means that their spiritual state will irrevocably lead to God’s judgment. Therefore, he calls upon the leaders to “hear the word of the LORD” and exhorts the people to “give ear to the instruction of our God”.

On top of that, and this is really shocking, they cover their depravity with a garment of religiosity. It is the religion of Cain. They multiply “sacrifices” to God (Isa 1:11), but He rejects them. They are worthless to Him because they are brought with a hypocritical and cold heart (Isa 29:13; Hos 6:6; Amos 5:21-24; Mic 6:6-8).

They may bring many sacrifices, but He abhors them. He has had enough of their “burnt offerings of rams”. The ram is the animal of the sacrifice of consecration. By bringing a ram, they pretend that they want to consecrate their lives to Him. The “fat” and “blood” of all kinds of animals don’t please Him. They pretend to acknowledge His right to it, but in practice they do what they like. What a variety of sacrifices they bring and they do it exactly as it is prescribed. But He cannot be happy about it.

They come to appear before Him with straight faces and trample His courts (Isa 1:12). Look how religious they are! But who asked that of them? He certainly did not. It is better for them to stay at home than to come hypocritically, because if they do, the offerings they bring are “worthless” (Isa 1:13). They do not benefit at all, they have no effect at all. The “incense” they bring is “an abomination” to Him. The LORD rejects with disgust their whole service. Everything with which they think they are honoring Him with is nothing but spiritual selfishness. It serves only to satisfy their religious feelings. There is nothing for the LORD.

The feast days and the associated meetings are also an abomination to Him. “I cannot endure” them, He must say, for He is the God of justice, and what they do is “iniquity”. Even if they hold a “solemn assembly” – these are the holy assemblies during the seven annual feast days described in Leviticus 23 – it is a reprehensible occupation to Him. They are feast days for self-indulgence, while there is no place for the LORD.

They are therefore no longer “the LORD’s appointed times” (Lev 23:2), but their own feasts. He therefore also calls them “your new moon [festivals], your appointed feasts” (Isa 1:14; cf. Jn 5:1 ; Jn 6:4 ; Jn 7:2). He hates them with all His soul. They are a burden to Him and He is weary of bearing them (cf. Isa 7:13). We would say: He is sick of it.

The language is extremely powerful and penetrating. God expresses in an almost emotional way His condemnation of their reprehensible service. He wants to convince His people of the abhorrence He has for their coming to appear before Him. Without knowing it, many are blind to what is appropriate for the LORD (cf. Rev 3:17-18) and have defended themselves against these accusations. They are o so satisfied with themselves and their service.

He who approaches God hypocritically in prayer He does not see or hear (Isa 1:15). He listens only if the practice – of which the hands speak – is pure (cf. 1Tim 2:8; Psa 24:4-5 ; Psa 66:18). They stand in the temple praying with hands spread out, but God does not listen to them, for their hands are covered with blood. They commit injustice in secret and so they come before Him. Nice praying in public, while the practice is in conflict with that, He abhors it.

He says of their drawing near to Him that they draw near to Him with their mouths and honor Him with their lips, but that they remove their hearts far from Him (Isa 29:13). God abhors a purely outward religion, then, now and in the future. The Christian’s conscience can also be so seared that he can have the appearance of a Christian practice (2Tim 3:5) while living in his sins.

Call For Repentance

God calls the people to wash themselves and make themselves clean (Isa 1:16; cf. Psa 51:7). In this call we hear the call of John the baptist to the religious leaders who come to his baptism: “Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance” (Mt 3:8). All the sacrifices they bring hypocritically do not cleanse their sinful deeds before God.

The call to wash means they are dirty. Washing is done with water. Spiritually, this means that by reading or hearing God’s Word, which is compared to water (Jn 15:3; Eph 5:26), a person sees that he is a sinner and acknowledges that. Confession of sins is answered by God with cleansing of sins. That cleansing happens on the basis of the blood of Christ (1Jn 1:7b ; 9).

When they have washed and cleansed themselves, they also will respond to the call to remove the “evil” of their deeds (Isa 1:16a) from before God’s eyes. Then there is the mind to “cease to do evil” (Isa 1:16b), by which the way is free “to do good” (Isa 1:17; Jam 4:8b; Rom 12:9). A person cannot learn to do good unless he stops doing evil first.

Someone who does good will seek justice, which is reflected in caring for the weak and vulnerable in society. Seeking justice means, says Isaiah, reproving the ruthless, defending “the orphan” and pleading for “the widow”. It is precisely these weak and vulnerable who are exploited by them (Isa 1:23). By a total reversal of their behavior toward them, they would show themselves to be His people.

In order to achieve this the LORD calls them to enter into a trial with Him (Isa 1:18). Then He will show them the righteousness of His actions. Also, when they acknowledge His righteous acts, He will cleanse them of their sins and grant them His forgiveness. He can do this on the basis of the work that His Son, the perfect Servant of the LORD, will accomplish as the guilt offering on the cross (Isa 53:7-12; Rom 3:25). God offers full forgiveness and purification in an unparalleled way on the basis of righteousness, no matter how serious and often someone may have sinned.

God points them to their sins that are “as scarlet” and “like crimson”. Scarlet and crimson are both a blood red color. It is the color that indicates blood guilt on them. Their hands are red with the blood they have shed and for which there is no means by which they can wash it away (Jer 2:22). However, if they confess their sins and plead for God’s grace, they will become white through the forgiveness they receive from God after their confession. The whiteness is compared to snow and wool. It points to the uncontaminated cleanliness of newly fallen snow and the benevolent warmth of wool that protects against the cold of sin and the world.

Prophetically, what we read here is a call to the people to acknowledge and confess their two sins. Those two sins are, first, the rejection of Christ and, second, the idolatry that leads to the acceptation of the antichrist. This prophetic aspect is discussed especially in the second part of Isaiah.

The LORD tells them that they can react in two ways. He also tells them the consequences of both reactions. The first reaction may be that they consent and obey Him (Isa 1:19). As a result, there will be blessing, that is, they will “eat the best of the land”. The second reaction may be that they refuse and rebel. In this case, they will be devoured by the sword (Isa 1:20). They can be sure that either the blessing or the curse will come because “the mouth of the LORD has spoken”. His statements are never empty statements, but full of effective power. What He says happens.

In Isa 1:19-20 we hear a play on words. If they consent and obey, they will eat the best of the land; but if they refuse and rebel, they will be eaten by the sword. In one case they will be allowed to take food that God gives them; in the other case they themselves will serve as food for the sword of their enemies.

Prophetically there are two groups of people here that we find in the end time. We recognize the one group, those who ‘eat’, in the obedient faithful remnant. The other group, those who ‘are eaten’, we recognize in the large, disobedient mass of Israel. When Christ came, the people as a whole did not accept Him (Jn 1:11), while the remnant did accept Him (Jn 1:12).

When the antichrist comes, the people will accept him (Jn 5:43), while the remnant will reject him. Because of this, the remnant will eventually receive blessing and eat, while the refusing people will be eaten by the sword. The sword that comes out of the mouth of the LORD (cf. Rev 19:15) is Assyria, which is also called the rod of God’s anger (Isa 10:5).

To us listening to the Lord leads to spiritual blessing. To us, “eating the good of the land” (Isa 1:19) means nourishing ourselves with “every spiritual blessing” (Eph 1:3) that is our part through the work of the Lord Jesus. If we disobey, our spiritual life will wither and our testimony will disappear.